Water Sector News
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Alaska health officials point to wastewater sampling as useful disease-tracking tool
The Alaska Division of Public Health is hoping to expand wastewater-monitoring programs that have proved useful in detecting outbreaks of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases, a report said.
Testing at Anchorage’s John M. Asplund Wastewater Treatment Facility, the municipality’s main wastewater plant, was able to provide notice of a spike in COVID-19 cases in January 2023, several days ahead of patients’ cases that were confirmed by health laboratories, said a bulletin recently issued by the division’s epidemiology section.
The information gleaned from testing at the Anchorage plant is an example of the way wastewater sampling has been used in multiple Alaska communities to monitor community spread of COVID-19 and other contagious diseases like influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.